Layer Cake Wines Exercise Program - Part 1

Look everyone! It's the man version of me! In Australia! On the beach! Exercising whilst drinking wine! Mom, why didn't you tell me I had a long lost twin brother?!

Catch-up! Dinner with Janet and Karen and Annie.

So, so, so busy.  Crazy busy.  Koo-koo ka ka busy.  And tired.  Haven't gone this long between posts in a looooong time.  But I'm back, saucier than ever.  In fact, I declare 2011 to be the Year of Sauciness.  This year, make an inappropriate comment at exactly the right (or wrong time).  Wear red lipstick.  Show some cleavage.  Life is short; sauciness makes it so much more...flavourful!  Pour it on thick, my kittens.

In the last 2 weeks I've been preparing for and exhibiting in a trade show.  It's kind of a big deal; I write a lot of my years' business at this show.  Therefore, there's been little time for wine-ing.  But it did go EXTREMELY well, my sweetie peaches.  So happy.  So, so, so happy.  It feels great when people love my artwork and then buy my artwork and then sell my artwork then lather, rinse, repeat.  I am incredibly lucky that I get to make my living by being creative.  Life goal achieved.

So another person who gets to live her life as a creative person/entrepreneur(euse?) is my aunt Janet.  My gorgeous, talented, clever, marvellous aunt Janet, who is a---wait for it---a mustard maker.  Wha? you say.  Mustard maker?  Is this a for real job?  Yes, kittens, yes it is.  You see, there are wine people, and there are chocolate people, and there are coffee people and there are mustard people.  I remember when I first heard about Janet's mustarding 20 years ago and thinking 'quoi?', but I came 'round real quick like upon first taste.  Because, my loves, this mustard--oh this mustard!--this mustard takes you on a magic carpet ride.  Yellow guck from the grocery store, I banish thee to the pits of hell!  Give me Hot Whisky mustard, Wasabi Lime mustard, Creamy Champagne mustard, Honey Tarragon mustard, Canadian Maple mustard...are you drooling yet?  This, my friends, is the condiment that bitch slaps all other condiments.  It's won international awares, y'all.  You so want this mustard.  I will provide you with the link, but not until the end of this post, because you will immediately abandon my blog in search of the perfect mustard.

ANYWAY, Janet was at the same trade show this week, selling her wares, and we finally, FINALLY got to have dinner together.  Mlle K was there, my eager helper and sales seductress (handy to have her there so she could dazzle my French speaking customers in their native language).  We met at the Holiday Inn restaurant at Janet's request. 

Wine list was really nice, but the company was what made the meal.  Janet brought her friend--and now MY friend--Annie.  There are people in this world who you can meet once and then instantly know they are the most decent, genuine kind of person who is a friend for life.  That was Annie.  She rescues animals.  Are there any better people in the world, I ask you, than those who take in abused dogs and cats and make them whole?  Annie has a halo.  Annie is the kind of person that holds up the universe.  Annie is the kind of loving person who stands at your back with pom-poms cheering for Team You.  I so love Annie.

ANYWAY, ANYWAY, food= nom nom.  Wine list was very nice, and I had a nice buttery chard to go with my shrimp and scallop fettuccine.  I talked Janet and Annie into buying a bottle of Oregon Pinot Noir (I told them the Belle Pente story.  Look at blog history for further details.  Life changing experience).  Graciously, both let me have a sip.  Good freaking goblins, there is NOTHING in this world like Pinot Noir from Oregon.  It is so distinct.  One wishes to dab it behind the ears, like perfume.  If you did, I'd follow you around, sniffing your earlobes. This particular PN was Amity 2005 from the Willamette Valley.  As gorgeous as you would expect.  And apparently available at the LCBO (thank-you, Dionysus). We all agreed we should try very hard to go to the Pinot Noir festival.  I'm thinking it'd be a good destination for my 40th next year.  What better place to turn forty, I ask you, than where the sweetest nectar in the world is made.  I am resolved!

ANYWAY, ANYWAY, ANYWAY, more importantly, Karen and I got to pick Janet's brains about Italy.  Janet, who is in many ways living my dream life, goes to Italy twice a year.  If you read this blog regularly, you know that Karen and I fantasize with alarming regularity about going to Italy.  Janet speaks Italian, and hosts a culinary vacation bi-annually in Umbria.  *le sigh*  This year she is thinking about making her fall excursion all about olive oil and harvesting olives.  Can you imagine, harvesting your own olives?  Pressing them into oil?  You should have seen how excited Karen was at the idea, it was adorable.  I so want.  I want to go.  I WANT TO GO.

Final note: Annie, whose family is from Basque, says there is a tradition where if you enjoy a really good bottle of wine with friends, you cut a slot into the cork and insert a dime, and then everyone who partook writes their name on the cork.  Like this:

Janet says she has a drawer full of these.  So soon shall I.

Visit http://www.mustard.ca/ for more information on Mrs. McGarrigle's Mustards and Fine Food Shoppe.

xoxo

'Til next time,

B.